In recent years, there have been increasing demands for thickness reduction and size reduction of semiconductor devices and packages thereof. Because of that, a flip-chip type semiconductor device has been broadly used in which a semiconductor element such as a semiconductor chip is mounted on a substrate by flip-chip bonding (flip-chip connection) to form a semiconductor device and a package thereof.
In flip-chip connection, a semiconductor chip is fixed to a substrate in a condition that the circuit surface of the semiconductor chip is opposite to the electrode forming surface of the substrate. There are cases where damage to the semiconductor chip is prevented by protecting the backside of the semiconductor chip with a protective film in such a semiconductor device.
However, it is necessary to add a new step of pasting a protecting film to the backside of the semiconductor chip that is obtained in a dicing step to protect the backside of the semiconductor chip with the protecting film. As a result, the number of steps increases and manufacturing cost increases. In addition, the semiconductor chip may be damaged in a pickup step thereof as the semiconductor device has become thinner in recent years. Because of this, a semiconductor wafer or the semiconductor chip is desired to be reinforced up to the pickup step to increase its mechanical strength.
It has been conventionally required to supply various types of information (for example, character information such as product numbers and graphic information such as two-dimensional codes) in a visually recognizable manner on a manufactured semiconductor chip and a semiconductor device that is manufactured using the semiconductor chip for the purpose of managing the product, etc.
As methods of manufacturing a semiconductor chip, known methods include a step of peeling a protective film forming layer and a release sheet, a step of curing the protective film forming layer by heating or by energy ray irradiation, and a step of dicing a semiconductor wafer and the protective film forming layer for each circuit (for example, refer to Patent Documents 1 and 2). However, in the methods described in Patent Documents 1 and 2, various types of information are necessary to be supplied on the semiconductor chip after the protective film forming layer is cured.